John L. Allen Jr. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1965-01-20)January 20, 1965 Hays, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2026(2026-01-22) (aged 61) Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations | Religionjournalist and author |
| Years active | 1997–2026 |
| Employer | Crux |
| Spouse | Elise[1] |
John Lewis Allen Jr. (January 20, 1965 – January 22, 2026) was an American journalist and author who served as editor of theCatholic news websiteCrux, formerly hosted byThe Boston Globe and now independently funded.
Before moving toThe Boston Globe when Crux was established in 2014, Allen worked for 17 years inRome as aVatican watcher, covering theHoly See and thePope for theNational Catholic Reporter. He also served as a Senior Vatican Analyst forCNN, and featured in broadcast coverage of theconclaves of2005 and2013. Allen was the St. Francis de Sales Fellow of Communication and Media at theWord on Fire Institute founded byBishopRobert Barron. Allen was the author of numerous books about the Catholic Church. He wrote two biographies ofPope Benedict XVI.
John Lewis Allen Jr. was born on January 20, 1965, inHays, Kansas.[1][2][3] He graduated fromCapuchin-founded[4]Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in 1983.[5] He received a bachelor's degree inphilosophy fromFort Hays State University and a master's degree inreligious studies from theUniversity of Kansas. From 1993 until 1997, Allen taught journalism and oversaw the student-run newspaper,The Knight, atNotre Dame High School inSherman Oaks, California.[1]
During the coverage of the death ofPope John Paul II, Allen frequently appeared onCNN. He then became the Senior Vatican Analyst for CNN. He also delivered lectures discussing Vatican issues and his latest works.
In 2014, Allen took up a position as associate editor withThe Boston Globe and helped to launch its website,Crux.[6] In 2016, theGlobe transferred ownership of theCrux website and its intellectual property to Allen. It now operates on the basis of advertising income, syndication and licensing as well as support from benefactors. Allen and his wife, Elise, who also serves as a Senior Correspondent forCrux, lived in Rome.
In an interview quoted in the Vatican's 2020McCarrick Report, Allen stated he did not report rumours because, "If I tried to interview every one of these guys [bishops] every time I heard something salacious, that is all I'd be doing and I'd be out of business in a heartbeat."[7]
Allen received a number of honorary doctorates from universities:
Allen firstly married Shannon Levitt.[12]
Allen married fellow journalist Elise Ann Harris in Key West, Florida, in about 2020.[13]
Allen suffered with stomach cancer for three years prior to his death in Rome, on January 22, 2026, at the age of 61.[14][15]
In addition to a column and occasional other pieces forNCR, Allen's work as a journalist appeared inTheNew York Times,The Washington Post,The Wall Street Journal,CNN,NPR,The Tablet,Jesus,Second Opinion,The Nation, theMiami Herald,Die Furche, and theIrish Examiner.[citation needed]
Allen wrote, among other books, two biographies ofPope Benedict XVI. The first was written before then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope, the other after his election to the papacy. In 2000, Allen publishedCardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, the first biography of Ratzinger in English.[16] Several reviewers criticized it as being biased against Ratzinger.Joseph Komonchak called it "Manichaean journalism".[17] After some examination, Allen concluded that this criticism was valid.[18] In his next biography of Ratzinger,The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church (2005), Allen tried to be fair to all sides and viewpoints. Allen acknowledged that his first book was "unbalanced" because it was his first book and was written, he wrote, "before I arrived in Rome and before I really knew a lot about the universal church". In that acknowledgement he said the first biography "gives prominent voice to criticisms of Ratzinger; it does not give equally prominent voice to how he himself would see some of these issues".[19]
In 2005 he published a book aboutOpus Dei,Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Allen said that one of his reasons for writing his study of Opus Dei was that he felt that liberal and conservative Catholics were too often shouting at each other, and he hoped that a book that tried to be fair to all sides would lead to civilized discussion. According to John Romanowsky ofGodspy, Allen's ability to report objectively, without revealing his personal opinion, has been called "maddening".[20]
Kenneth L. Woodward, former religion editor forNewsweek, wrote in 2005: "Outside of the North Korean government in Pyongyang, no bureaucracy is harder for a journalist to crack than the Vatican's. And no one does it better than John L. Allen Jr. ... In just three years, Allen has become the journalist other reporters—and not a few cardinals—look to for the inside story on how all the pope's men direct the world's largest church."[21]
Allen was critical of how the Vatican communicated the decision to lift the excommunications of the bishops of theSociety of Saint Pius X.[22]
It is no secret to regular readers of this column that I have a special affection for the Capuchins, who had the Christian charity to put up with me in grade school and high school in Hays, Kansas in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
